The Face of the World. An International Scrapbook of People and Places [SIGNED DELUXE EDITION]

[Cecil Beaton]


The Face of the World is a scrapbook and compilation of 'a decade of revival', a demonstration of how art and culture had been revitalised after the war years. The title and subtitle of the book (An International Scrapbook of People and Places) reflects the global outlook of the contents. It contains a mixture of photographs, drawings, and extracts from journals and published articles produced by Beaton in the years from 1945-1956. ‘People… Places… Pleasures… All come under the engaging scrutiny of Cecil Beaton’s camera, brush and pen.’ There are articles on London, Paris, New York, Sicily, and Tokyo laid out on hotel notepaper and the ‘Travel Album’ spreads reproduce photographs taken on visits around the world. The portrait photographs likewise demonstrate an international cast of creatives. The usual suspects are there (including Christian Bérard, Picasso, Diana Cooper, Colette, the Royal Family, Evelyn Waugh, Nancy Mitford and Winston Churchill), but Beaton was keen to ensure that the book was up to the minute and so included images of several contemporary stars, such as Albert Camus, Mary McCarthy, Truman Capote, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Maria Callas, Marlon Brando, Tennessee Williams, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon.
This is from the special edition, numbered and signed by Beaton, with a deluxe binding and no dust jacket. The number of copies in the deluxe edition is unspecified but the highest we have seen is 57, suggesting a probable edition size of 100.


Cecil Beaton. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London. 1957. First edition. Special edition with a deluxe binding and signed by Cecil Beaton. No. 8 from an unspecified number. Hardback, quarto; light-blue woven cloth-bound boards, backed with dark-blue buckram, with gilt title to spine and gilt lines where buckram meets cloth. 240 pages. Extensively illustrated with photographs and text illustrations, on various coloured paper stock. English. 285 x 225mm. 1.2kg. . Very good; slight shelf wear, light fading to buckram spine, edge of woven cloth beginning to fray, no inscriptions.